Meredith Cunningham is the production/online editor for Retail Online Integration, its e-newsletter, The ROI Report, and website, RetailOnlineIntegration.com. Meredith is also the production/online editor for the Target Marketing Group's web-only brand, eM+C.
Before coming to North American Publishing Company, Meredith served as sports editor for The Evening Bulletin in Philadelphia, and was a designer for the Bucks County Courier-Times. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Utica College of Syracuse University in 2007.
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In the May issue of Retail Online Integration, I discussed Fits.me, a virtual fitting room for online retailers that features FitBot mannequins, a moving mannequin that adjusts to a shopper's precise shape and size. It appears this new technology is catching on as Gilt Groupe's PARK & BOND, U.K. retailer Barbour By Mail and Pretty Green, a British clothing label founded and designed by Liam Gallagher, have all signed on to use it.
"In the United States, only 9 percent of the apparel market is sold online," said Fits.me CEO and Co-Founder Heikki Haldre in a company press release. "With our breakthrough technology, this can grow to at least 30 percent." PARK & BOND is the first retailer in the U.S. to use Fits.me.
All three retailers said their customer service will improve by offering the virtual fitting rooms as they'll see less product returns. Quelle, an online retailer in Germany, did a trial run with Fits.me and saw its returns decrease 28 percent — on top of the increase it saw in sales. Retailers using virtual fitting rooms expect their return rates to improve during the upcoming holiday season.
"FitBot mannequins achieve a close to perfect fit, solving the single biggest problem for online fashion retail — the lack of a fitting room," said Haldre. "Retailers already utilizing Fits.me technology have noticed an increase in sales and a drop in return rates."
All three retailers are excited to be a part of this new, cutting-edge technology. Nigel Grant, brand director at Pretty Green, said the following in a company press release: “Pretty Green is dedicated to being at the cutting edge of both fashion and technology, and so it was logical for us to work with Fits.Me. We're confident this new offering will be highly successful as a large proportion of our customers buy online. This will be a chance for them to gain a real ‘feel’ for the product.”
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